prestige is about dueling magicians around the turn of the century. they start out as friends but a performance tragedy turns them into bitter enemies as they continously try to upstage the others act, even resorting to attempted murder. christian bale plays one magician, who obviously has the better illusions but lacks the showmanship that hugh jackman, the other magician, possesses. caught in the center is magician assistant scarlett johansson, who plays a small part of a developing love triangle. don't let that mislead you into thinking this is some sappy love story however, because it isn't: the prestige is essentially a marvelous pissing contest between two men trying to top one another. there are other small parts played by famous people: michael caine plays a magic trick designer/engineer, and david bowie appears as mysterious inventor nicholas tesla. i figured out the ending 2/3 of the way into the movie (it wasn't hard, there were some obvious clues) but the ending was still satisfyingly shocking. what can you expect from the director of memento?
afterwards i returned home, buying some paper leaf litter bags along the way. i raked the leaves in the backyard and swept the front sidewalk. i also moved the air conditioner (which had been sitting in my kitchen) down into the basement. back inside i planned on relaxing with some corn chips but accidently dumped the partially eaten clam dip into the kitchen sink when i tried to pouring some excess liquid out. i immediately went across the street to the supermarket to buy a new container of clam dip but they were all out (is somebody have a party?); i had to settle for french onion dip, which is nothing like clam dip.
i answered a knock on my door. it was my neighbor renee. "welcome back!" she said, and after a pause, added, "i need your help again." i grabbed my shoes and went next door. her computer was misbehaving again. the issue this time: since she switched from cablemodem to dsl, she hasn't been able to get her e-mails. when i got to her machine, that wasn't the only problem however: the virus protection software she installed was warning her of at least one infection. i tried to fix that first, but the computer wouldn't recognize her sysadmin password, so i just fixed the e-mail issue, which had something to do with setting up a new dsl account (verizon should've done this for her). problem solved, i returned home to a prepared dinner (who dropped it off when i was at the movies) that heated up in the microwave.